Grounded
by Laughing Jackdaw
Summary: Asuma didn't always get along with his father, but he had most definitely never suspected getting grounded after causing too much trouble. He didn't think his father would hire a guard - or rather, a babysitter - as well. Enter Agent Wolf, who likes this mission as much as Asuma does. A short story about a boring mission wherein nothing really happens.


Asuma slouched against the wooden frame of the door. His eyebrows were knitted into what could become a permanent frown, and he burried his hands into his pockets, hiding his clenched fists.  
In front of him, behind a desk with neatly piled up stacks of paper, sat his father, the Third Hokage, whose facial expression was as dark as Asuma's own. This week, father and son had stood in exactly the same position, thrice already.

"Asuma," The Third Hokage began, and Asuma sighed loudly, "Yes, Father?"

"This is the third time this week, and that makes it -" "The fifth time this month, yes."

" – that you've been send into this office. Now be quiet, I am talking to you."

"No, I will not be quiet!" Asuma suddenly shouted, "I have my own life, I am old enough to decide what I want! I am seventeen years old, and have been a ninja since I was eight, don't you think it's my right to hang out with my friends?"

The Third Hokage sighed in return, and he lit his pipe, "I do _not_ think it's your right to behave scandalously. You may hang out with your friends – I encourage such social behaviour, young ones should cherish as much of their blessed days as they can – but you may not break and enter someone's house when not given an order to do so. You may not smoke," He took a drag of his tobacco, and after a while, breathed out the smoke through his nose, "until you are eighteen. You may not harrass people on the street. I thought I'd taught you to behave more responsible, you ought to keep a close eye on your actions and the consequences thereof -"  
_  
"- because you are the Hokage's son._" Asuma finished angrily, "Yes, I am aware of that, Father, I am aware of my position, and the name I have to shoulder. Yes, I do know this. Yes, how could I ever forget if that is all you ever say to me?"

The Third Hokage blew a cloud of gray smoke into the air, "My son,"  
The what-could-have-been sentence of either love or regret was cut off when a Chuunin, who should've been handing out missions to Genin on the floor below, ran through the already opened door, "Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama!"

The old leader closed his eyes, "I am busy at the moment."

"It is urgent, Hokage-sama! The Daimyo of Mud Country is standing at our missiondesk, and he is requestioning your presence! He says the matter is of the uttermost importance, sir!"  
The old man seemed to slump in his chair, "Very well, let him come to my office, I shall see him immediately."  
"Yessir!" The Chuunin saluted, and he ran back to deliver the message.

The Third Hokage looked his son right in the eyes, "I will speak to you later. You may go now, Asuma."  
The young shinobi nodded stiffly, "Yes, Hokage-sama." And he left the room, not bothering to close the door behind him.

* * *

That evening, after Asuma'd spoken to his father – a 'talk' which became a battle of wills, which Asuma seemed to have won somehow, a miracle, really – the teen had left his father's house in search of his friends.  
He found them in the park. It was dark already, and the streetlights cast a dim light on the group of pale, young-faced shinobi. They'd gathered around and on their usual bench, near the pond.  
"Asuma's come, guys!" Genma shouted, alerting the other friends, "Finally, what took you this long?"

The young Sarutobi smirked, scratching his almost-beard, "It's nothing, really. Just had a short talk with my dad,"

"Oooh, the Third Hokage~!"

"but it's all done now. What are we going to do this night?" Asuma finished, ignoring Anko's comment.

"The same as usual, I guess." Kurenai said. Asuma smiled, "Alright, let's go."  
The group of teenagers left their spot to go to another hangout, somewhere in town, happily chattering, not caring what others may think of their activities.

* * *

The next day, the Third Hokage got a fourth report on his son's behaviour. This time, he'd been caught with underage drinking.  
Again.

The old man sighed, and he made his final decision. It really did seem that his son was in need of a guard, or to put it in less eloquent terms, a babysitter.  
He took a paper from the stack of paperwork on his right, looked at it, and stamped his signature. Then he reached to the stack underneath his desk, and picked up a file and opened it, scanned through it, and called a Messenger-nin.

"Get ANBU Wolf. I will assign him a new mission."

* * *

Later the same day, around dinnertime, Asuma and his father sat around their rather small table, separated by the piece of furniture and their clashing thoughts. After a while, the older man sighed (again), and closed his eyes.  
"Because you went out drinking yesterday – and caused trouble afterwards – I decided to… introduce a stricker method to keep you in line to this household. Simply keeping you grounded for a couple of days isn't going to stop you, you might not learn what I am trying to teach you, or you will sneak out anyway. You're ninja after all, and well-trained at that."

Asuma wasn't sure to take that as a compliment or not.

"Therefore, I 'hired' a guard. He'll be at your side, and is ordered to make sure you stay indoors the coming three weeks. In other words, Asuma, you are grounded and will be watched. Hopefully, you can use this time to over think what your past decisions."

"You're kidding." Asuma said incredulously, "You're fucking kidding me."

"I'm afraid that I am not."

The teen couldn't believe his ears. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair at all. He was seventeen – not seven, he didn't need a – a babysitter! He could take care of himself, and what would he tell his friends? Why wasn't he allowed to go out anymore? (He could think of multiple reasons why, but that didn't stop him from questioning it. It just didn't make any sense…)

"Wolf, you can come in now. Asuma, Agent Wolf of the ANBU-elite shall guard you and my rules. Treat him well."  
At the call of his superior, a cloaked ANBU-member suddenly appeared from the shadows. The porselain mask represented a wolf – hence the codename – and  
Asuma winced, not from intimidation but from sheer annoyance. He really was in deep shit now that an ANBU-agent had been 'introduced' as his… guard.

This was yet another downside of being the Hokage's son – his father was in control of ANBU, and he could utilize the special forces as he pleased. When Asuma'd been younger, around the age of seven, he'd had ANBU-guards as well, but that had been to make sure he wasn't kidnapped or anything, not to make sure he stayed indoors and didn't misbehave.

The dark-clad elite ninja bowed in front of Asuma, murmuring, "Let's be succesful in our given mission, sir."

Asuma gave him a curt nod in reply, stating, "Yes. Good luck with that."

The Third Hokage felt a headache coming up as he watched his son and the ANBU exchange greetings. This was bound to become more troublesome than was necessary.

* * *

"You are not allowed to leave, sir."

Asuma growled in frustration. This had been the third time his babysitter had caught him trying to escape his room, and it had beent he third time he'd heard exactly the same sentence coming from that hidden mouth. Couldn't that damn 'elite' say anything else, or had he been prohibited by the Hokage from doing so?

Honestly, this was annoying, awkward and terribly humiliating.

"Can't you say anything else?" He asked as he scratched his beard. Eventually, he decided that he might as well try to make the best out of it, and trying to talk to his unwelcome companion might lift the boredom that had settled itself in the room at least a little.

The ANBU nodded in reply, as if to prove the irony of the statement.

"Stop calling me 'sir', and stop standing in that corner all of the time. You're creepy."

The agent stepped aside, out of the corner, still leaning against the wall. Great, Asuma had to deal with a smartass.  
Or someone who just followed orders to the letter, which would be equally annoying.

Asuma flopped onto his bed, groaning. Why did he have to be stuck in this place again?

* * *

The next night wasn't as 'peaceful' as the first night had been. Asuma'd tried to escape his parent's house, but the ANBU-agent had bested him every time he tried something.

It came as a huge surprise when, suddenly, Genma appeared at his bedroom-windowsill. The brown-haired ninja picked the lock, opened the window, and extended his hand, "Let's go."  
How Genma'd figured out about Asuma's predicament Asuma did not know, but he was terribly grateful.

The moment the grounded teen set foot on the windowsil, Wolf decided to appear, and his silent, creepy entrance caught Genma off guard. He almost fell down into the garden.  
Asuma caught his hand just in time, and he hoisted his friend up. The ANBU just stared. (Or, at least, Genma thought he was staring, but that was hard to tell with that mask covering both face and eyes).

"I'm sorry, but Asuma's not allowed to leave tonight, nor tomorrow and the few days after. I advice you to leave now."  
The guard (babysitter) addressed Genma, and he stepped forwards.

Intimidated by the ANBU, Genma scrambled backwards in response, "O-okay, I'll leave. I'll leave."

He put his foot on the sill, grasped Asuma's had, and shouted, "Run!" as he pulled his friend with him, out of the room.  
Too bad certain orders were against that decision, and Asuma was pulled back by the collar of his shirt. The grounded teen shouted at his friend when the senbon-chewing teen tried to jump back to the opened window, "Leave, Genma! I'll find a way out – don't worry about me!"

The brown-haired shinobi frowned, "If you don't come tomorrow, I'll know where to find you!" and he sprang away, back into the night.  
Asuma smoldered, but he wisely held his tongue.

He was surprised when he heard his guard snort. Was he laughing underneath his mask?  
"You've got loyal friends." The ANBU remarked, and he awkwardly patted Asuma on his back before dissapearing once again. Asuma huffed.

* * *

After a few days, Asuma had still not managed to get out of the room without his babysitter interfering. His friends had tried many times to distract the ANBU, or to simply overpower the elite ninja, but up until now, nothing had worked. It was as if the special agent was everywere, saw everything and knew everything.  
It was an unfair battle – especially since the only way in and out was throught the window, and even teamwork couldn't solve that. (They could not resort to more powerful strategies, seeing causing damage, or alerting the Hokage for real, was not ever supposed to happen).

It came as yet another surprise when the ANBU himself opened the window, and out of the blue told Asuma to go.  
"Wait, what?" the teen had asked Wolf, and he'd gotten a 'Hn.' in response.

"Just don't let your father know any of this. I'll lose my job, or worse."

"Thanks." Asuma said, confused but pleased, and he dissapeared, leaving to see his friends in a hurry.

Wolf closed the window, put off the lights, and spend the rest of the night 'guarding' the door, acting as if Asuma was still in his room.

* * *

"Asuma," Wolf said, "You'd better not go out this night. I have to keep up some of this pretense, and a lie is better told when it is carrying some truth. You cannot leave now."

Asuma nodded, understanding what his guardian was asking of him. He still couldn't believe what the ANBU had done for him (disobeying orders directly given to him by the Hokage himself, and lying straight into the old man's face). He was glad, and he was definitely behaving more discreet than ever before during his 'nightly trips' – he didn't drink, still smoked, and went to the park to simply talk with his friends, but he'd stopped going to parties – too many people would recognize him, and he didn't like them much anyway – and he didn't get into any fights – it'd get both him and the responsible ANBU in trouble.

Asuma retreated on his bed, and a plan formed into his head, "Agent Wolf."

"Yes." The ANBU entered his room, and he tilted his head as if to ask 'What's it?'

"Do you know how to play shogi?" And Asuma pulled out the board from underneath a weeks old, and very late, missionreport.

* * *

"No more nightly attacks on my son's window?" The Hokage asked.

"Not a single one, sir. I do not believe I let anything slip my notice, but these escape attempts stopped three days ago." Wolf answered.

The pair was sitting at the table, two steaming cups of tea in front of them. The father was pleased, and he sipped his hot drink, "Hm. How is Asuma taking this?"  
Wolf shrugged, "At first he was moody. He's gotten better now."

"Really?" Hiruzen Sarutobi prompted, implying he wanted a better answer to his question.

"Yessir. We – he – talked a little. Even played Shogi yesterday evening." Wolf's voice was as emotionless as ever. The Hokage looked away politely when Wolf picked up his cup to take a sip.

"Who won?" The bearded man asked without looking at his agent.  
Wolf surpressed a grin, "I did, sir."

The old man smiled as he heard the hidden smirk in the ANBU's voice, "That's good, Wolf."  
If the Hokage had known anything about his son's allowed-but-not-quite nightly escapades, he did not show.

* * *

Two days later, Agent Wolf was removed from the 'babysit-mission'. An urgent matter had come up, and the elite was send to rescue, or rather, kill, because that was his job.  
A new ANBU-agent – a rookie called Cat - was stationed at Asuma's window, but the teen decided escaping was futile anyway, and the last few days of his grounding went peacefully.

* * *

The next week, Asuma found himself on a sudden mission with Kurenai and the loud Gai. They were somewhere in a remote town, which was positioned in a forest, about a three-days journey away from Konoha. They'd just delivered an important package with unknown (to them) contents to the village elders.  
The only order they had yet to carry out was recieving intel on some criminal syndicate from some spies.

The team of three decided to first scan the town seperately, and then meet up underneath the tall oak just out of town. One of them was bound to be approached by the spy.

Against their expectations, no spy showed up. The team decided to stay for the night in an inn, in case the messenger would be late or something else would come up – a new order, a new mission, a failure, one could never be sure.

The next morning, there was no spy, but an ANBU-agent who silently entered through the window. He was limping slightly, and woke Asuma and Gai rather rudely, "Get up. Take this scroll. The mission was unsuccesful. Our spies got caught -"

"Wolf?"

"No time to explain, this scroll needs to get to the Hokage." The elite ushered. Wolf looked around the room a few times as if he was expecting an attack at any moment, and stared pointedly at Gai, who glared back at him with such a dark look Asuma almost flinched from its fiery dissaproval.

Wolf snorted, "No 'heroic dynamic rescue-attempts', got it Gai?", and he left as silently as he had come. Asuma went to get Kurenai, worried about his former guard, as the taijutsu-user was left to stare at the almost invisible traces of blood the ANBU'd left behind.

* * *

"It seems Agent Wolf has gotten himself a injury worthy of a stay in the hospital during his last mission, just as you assumed in your report." The Third Hokage told his son as he tapped with his pipe on the missionreports.  
Especially Gai's had been exceptionally vocal about the 'incident with the ANBU-messenger' – it had been toned with lots of references to past challenges, revealing that the other teen knew very much about the real identity of Agent Wolf.

"Why do you tell me that?" Asuma asked, genuily confused.

His father's eyes were twinkling, "Just thought you should know. He's recovering from a nasty gash in the leg. Perhaps you could visit him – I'm sure he'd appericiate that, after all he has done for you."

(Now Asuma was sure nothing could ever escape his father's notice, not even the well-hidden moments of disobeyance from his ANBU-members).

"I will. Do I need to tell him something from you?"

"Tell him that the mission was succesful after all…" The Third Hokage lit his pipe, "…and that I would like to invite him to play a game of Shogi with me soon." The old man smirked at his son, and the youngster smiled back.

* * *

"You are not allowed to leave, sir."

Hatake Kakashi whirled around, one leg already outside the window, and stared in shock as Asuma walked into the white hospital-room, carrying a Shogi-board and a stack of books.

"Being grounded truely is boring, isn't it?" Asuma asked with a grin plastered on his face.

**A/N: I hope you liked this rather short story. It doesn't have much of a plot, but I just liked the idea of a 'babysit-mission for almost-grownups'.  
****Have a nice day!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**


End file.
